For the last 80 years or so, the hiring process in America has and continues to be very inefficient and not effective.  We require "applicants" to give us all kinds of information on a job application.  We accept bland cover letters and resumes (many trumped up with fluffy accomplishments).  We stack the cover letter and resumes up in a big pile and start to eliminate.  Even through all of that lengthy and time-consuming process, we still eliminate good candidates while bringing in bad ones.  Through this standard process, it's only through random good fortune that we actually hire someone that has the attitude, character and skills to help us fulfill our mission in serving our customers and constituents.  

I’ve had plenty of practice hiring the ineffective way.  From the time in the early 1980's when I waded through 55 or so applications from teen agers wanting to work in my photography studio until today, our methods haven't changed much and the “stack resume and eliminate” method hasn’t improved outcomes.  I listen to the radio ads promising hundreds of applicant resumes if you’ll pay their fee.  This will only provide a much higher stack to eliminate even more good candidates. 

Over the years, I’ve also experimented.  I've hired by watching the way someone works at some other business and asking them to come and work for me.  I once hired a young man whose resume contained typos and misspellings (definitely against the recommendation of the HR director and even the CEO) because I thought he'd be dedicated and hard working.  I was right.  Overall my track record at hiring, using gut feeling, has been better than when I waded through the applications and resumes, eliminating without knowing the applicant. 

A few years ago, after a lengthy discussion about this in one of my entrepreneurship classes, Terry Trout, owner of Ane Mae’s Coffee and Sandwich House in Independence threw out the traditional job application and replaced it instead with a sort of questionnaire.  Applicants expecting to find the same ineffective job application questions instead are invited to tell Terry about themselves and how they can help him and his staff members serve their customers better.  Those looking to fill their “quota” of job applications rarely complete the questionnaire.  Those that do answer see that Terry thinks differently and is willing to train someone in the aspects of his business after knowing they are in tune with helping him serve customers. 

When we look for people to add to our businesses and organizations, if we will pay the same attention to character, entrepreneurial mindset, positive attitude and innovative thinking as we do to “qualifications” and other aspects of competency, we’ll get the consistency and quality we need to be more effective in fulfilling our collective missions. 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu. Archive columns and podcasts at www.fablabicc.org.